Month: August 2018

Yesterday evening we had the pleasure of presenting at a 3D printing event hosted by RMIT’s Additive Manufacturing Precinct and organised by Sarah Fink and 3dHeals. It started with a tour of the facility followed by an introduction by Prof Ivan Cole on RMIT’s research strategies including some fantastic work in materials technology and lattice design for medical implants.

Don’t bother asking why. We don’t know.

Jason Chuen from our very own UniMelbAustin Health3dMedLab was up next to share his insights on Medical Applications of 3D Printing including anatomical visualisation, surgical planning, procedural simulation and teaching — together with an emphasis on the need for more cross-disciplinary work between clinicians and engineers.

Next up was Paul D’Urso, founder of Melbourne 3D printing startup Anatomics was next with more information on how just-in-time manufacturing and personalised manufacturing can save transport and operating theatre resources.

This was followed by Neil Anderson, CEO of Oventus Medical who have developed and commercialised a personalised oral mandibular advancement and airway appliance for obstructive sleep apnoea (what a mouthful! 😉) to replace standard CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) masks. Together with CSIRO’s Lab 22 they used 3D printing throughout the prototyping and early manufacturing phases and still rely heavily on it for production and redesign.

Neurostimulation for prosthetic activation — Dr Anita Quigley, UOW.

Last but not least was Anita Quigley, Senior Research Fellow from the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute who wowed the audience with her work on patient-derived stem cells for 3D printing. Like many other researchers in this field she has had to transition from being a biologist to a materials scientist, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of this work.

3D Bioprinting with Dr Anita Quigley, UOW.

It was great to catch up with so many like-minded researchers and enthusiasts, as well as tour the Additive Manufacturing Precinct at RMIT. Thankyou everyone who came and we hope to see in in October at 3dMed Australia 2018! Remember — get those abstracts in ASAP!

Touring the facilities at RMIT’s AMP.

So much room… so jealous… and even the fanciest facilities still use the old Makerbots.

At long last our brand new Ultimaker S5 printer has arrived — we’ve been having lots of fun testing it out. Thanks to Australian suppliers Imaginables for getting it to us so soon after release, though we had to reach deep into our research grant savings jar to pay for it.

Gordon had the pleasure of unboxing and he could not resist making a big deal of it — check out our Instagram Story!

Somehow it has been christened with a name — Ultron 2018. Not sure about that one…

The good news is that the build volume is HUGE and we look forward to giving it a whirl. The dual extruder mechanism has been rock solid for the first few prints and having soluble PVA supports is just heavenly.

One tip — do a firmware update out of the box. We had problems syncing and connecting to Cura Connect until that was done.

We are excited to announce that our joint submission to the Australian Research CouncilIndustrial Transformation Training Centre Grant to build Australia’s Medical Implant and MedTech capacity using 3D Printing has been successful! This will allow us, together with The University of Melbourne, Flinders University, Griffith University and multiple other project partners to fund post-graduate students who will spend time engaging in university-based training as well as workplace-based training in clinical and industry settings.

So thrilled to be invited by Munich Vascular Conference (MAC) for an oral presentation on our AAA #3dprinting workflow @3dmedLab @Austin_Health @UniMelbMDHS.
Thanks for the great questions and stimulating discussions! @ozvascdoc